What did the test cameras find?
Test cameras are recording thousands of illegal "ghost" number plates a day, BBC Panorama reports. The cameras are on roads in south-east England, and the report ran on 28 September 2026.
The cameras come from MAV Systems, which the BBC's report calls one of the main providers of ANPR technology. ANPR means automatic number plate recognition, the camera system used to enforce speed limits and low emission zones.
One test site near the Dartford Crossing has averaged more than 1,000 ghost plates a day over several months, the BBC reports.
Two more sites have run for almost two years. One near the M25 has gone from 1,000 detections a day to nearly 2,000, and one near the Eurotunnel at Folkestone flags more than 400 a day.
Those are counts, not a rate. The BBC's report doesn't say how many vehicles passed each camera.
The BBC says the system is being tested. Its report doesn't say any driver has been fined because of these cameras.
What's the fine for a ghost plate?
Drive with incorrectly displayed number plates and you could be fined up to £1,000, gov.uk says. Your vehicle will also fail its MOT.
The fine on the day is often smaller. Police stopped a van with a ghost plate on the edge of Birmingham, and the driver got a £100 fine, the BBC reports.
He said he didn't know the plate was illegal.
A December 2025 report by the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Transport Safety gives the same two figures. The maximum is £1,000 through a magistrates' court, it says, but drivers are more often fined £100.
The offence carries no penalty points today. The Department for Transport's consultation on motoring penalties names number plate offences among those that "do not carry extra penalties, such as penalty points or vehicle seizure".
That could change.
The consultation asked whether being in charge of a vehicle with an incorrect, altered or false plate should bring penalty points. It asked the same about vehicle seizure.
It ran from 7 January to 11 May 2026. No government response had been published when we checked on 28 September 2026, and the page still says feedback is being analysed.
Our round-up of new driving laws in 2026 tracks that consultation. The rest of our laws and fines guides cover what to do when a penalty arrives.
What is a ghost plate?
A ghost plate looks normal to the naked eye and shows the right registration for the vehicle. It's made with reflective material that most ANPR cameras find hard or impossible to read, the BBC reports.
The Department for Transport puts it slightly differently. Its announcement of 5 September 2026 describes ghost plates as ones "where a transparent film is used to make the registration undetectable to cameras".
It isn't the same as cloning. A cloned plate copies another vehicle's registration, and our guide to cloned number plates covers the checks for that.
Buying a ghost plate isn't illegal in itself, the BBC reports. Fitting one to a vehicle and driving with it is.
Are my number plates legal?
A ghost plate looks like a normal plate to the naked eye, the BBC reports.
Panorama filmed a roadside check by police and DVLA where infrared goggles showed a van was carrying one. The goggles see a plate the way an ANPR camera does.
You can still check the rest of the rulebook. DVLA's rules on gov.uk say the characters on a plate must not be removable or reflective.
A plate must be marked to show who supplied it. It must also carry a British Standard number, which is BS AU 145e for plates fitted after 1 September 2021.
Plates fitted after that date must have characters in a single shade of black. No plate can have a background pattern.
Raised 3D characters are allowed, the same page says. The parliamentary group's report wants 3D and 4D plates banned, but that's a recommendation and not the law.
Bought the car used? The plates came with it, and you're the one driving on them.
If the supplier mark or the British Standard number is missing, I'd replace the plates. A registered supplier has to see original documents first, gov.uk says.
One set proves your name and address. The other shows you're allowed to use the registration, and the V5C logbook is on that list.
No history check can see a ghost plate. The problem is in the plate itself, not in any record of the car.
Who's selling ghost plates?
More than 34,000 businesses are registered with DVLA to supply number plates, the BBC reports.
Two have been prosecuted and forcibly removed from that register since 2020, according to a Freedom of Information request by Panorama. The BBC also reports that six DVLA officers are tasked with inspecting and auditing those suppliers.
Panorama filmed undercover at a market in Essex. Two of the three businesses it approached offered ghost plates, the BBC reports.
One sold a plate for £40 in cash. It didn't ask for ID or proof that the buyer could use the registration, the BBC says.
DVLA told the BBC it was "cleaning up the register, strengthening compliance and enforcement". It said it works with police and Trading Standards to "tackle suppliers who break the rules".
What is the government doing about it?
The Department for Transport announced funding for a National Roads Policing Coordination Centre on 5 September 2026. It'll bring police forces from around England together to share intelligence, the department says.
The centre will test new technology. The department's example is goggles that detect plates criminals have tried to make unreadable to cameras.
Roads Minister Justin Madders called the move "a signal to anyone using illegal number plates that their time is up".
He went further with the BBC, which reports him saying a more robust system may be needed. "I don't think we can rule anything in or out at this stage," he said.
How common are ghost plates?
No one has measured it across UK roads as a whole. The figure you'll see quoted is one in 15, and it's an estimate.
It comes from Ghosts on the Road, the parliamentary group's December 2025 report. The report says "up to one in 15 vehicles on UK roads may carry modified, non-compliant plates".
That includes every kind of modified plate, not ghost plates alone. The report itself calls the figure an estimate.
The same report includes smaller measured samples. Of 1,000 vehicle checks by the Metropolitan Police and Transport for London in March 2023, it says, 41% of licensed taxis had non-compliant plates.
In a one-hour exercise near Gatwick airport in June 2023, 6% of vehicles had some form of ANPR-defeating material on their plates. The report says that's believed to be an underestimate.
Those are London taxis and one hour of airport traffic, not UK roads in general.
The camera counts are a different kind of evidence. They're road detections from three test sites in one corner of England.
Ghost number plates: quick answers
Are ghost plates illegal in the UK?
Driving with one is. Buying a ghost plate isn't illegal in itself, the BBC reports, but fitting it to a vehicle and driving with it is against the law. Gov.uk says you can't alter a plate so that it's hard to read.
What is the fine for a ghost number plate?
You could be fined up to £1,000 for driving with incorrectly displayed plates, gov.uk says. A driver stopped by police in the BBC's report got a £100 fine. The offence doesn't carry penalty points today.
Will a ghost plate fail an MOT?
Gov.uk says your vehicle will fail its MOT if you drive with incorrectly displayed number plates. That's on top of the fine. A ghost plate looks normal to the naked eye, though, so a tester may not spot one. Either way, fit plates that meet the rules before the test.
Are 3D and 4D number plates legal?
Gov.uk's rules say a plate can have 3D raised characters. They don't mention 4D plates by name. Any plate's characters must not be removable or reflective, and a parliamentary group's report in December 2025 recommended banning both types.
Can you get penalty points for a ghost plate?
Not today. The Department for Transport consulted on adding penalty points and vehicle seizure between January and May 2026. No response had been published when we checked on 28 September 2026.